Eating your way through a steakhouse menu

1of 18A strip steak often is called a New York strip.Photo: Eric Kayne, For the Chronicle

2of 18A rib-eye can be served with or without the bone.Photo: Nick de la Torre

3of 18Ribeye Steak is one of the menu items being tested for the opening of Pappas Meat Co., a new concept from Pappas Restaurants, expected to open this fall at 12010 East Freeway.Photo: Pappas Restaurants

5of 18KRT FOOD STORY SLUGGED: STEAKS KRT PHOTOGRAPH BY MARY KELLEY/COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE TELEGRAPH (KRT3-September 28) Uptown cuts of steak, like this T-bone, require little preparation for grilling according to William Rice author of the ''Steak Lover's Cookbook'' Rice classifies the most tender cuts of steak, such as T-bone, ribeye and top lion, as uptown cuts. (GT) AP PL KD 1998 (Vert) (Additional photo available on KRT Direct, PressLink or upon request.) NO MAGS, NO SALES. Used in graphic illustration - BUSINESS 12/4/99 HOUCHRON CAPTION (12/04/1999): A resurgence in popularity of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet - first introduced in the 1970s - may be contributing to the increase in beef demand. A sample menu shows beef is a big part of the daily food intake: Breakfast: Eggs, bacon and cheese. Lunch: Salad with hamburger patty (no bun). Dinner: Steak, asparagus with hollandaise sauce.Photo: MARY KELLEY, MBR

11of 1809/09/03--A 40 oz. Porterhouse for two is served here with steamed green asparagus and Au Gratin Potatoes at Vic & Anthony's steak house, located at 1510 Texas Ave. Staff photo by Steve Campbell. HOUCHRON CAPTION (09/26/2003): The food, as well as conspicuous consumption, is big at Vic & Anthony's: This porterhouse steak for two, served with steamed asparagus and au gratin potatoes, weighs in at 40 ounces.Photo: Steve Campbell, Staff

There's something uniquely familiar about the cuts of beef on a steakhouse menu.

Filet. Strip. Porterhouse. Rib-eye.

Anything beyond that is merely extraneous. Bone-in or not? I'm not convinced it matters, but if you want to pony up another 20 bucks for the bone-in version, that's up to you.

For carnivores, fat - also known as marbling - equals flavor. Steaks are distinguished by those with lots of fat (rib-eye) to some fat (strip) to a little fat (filet). A porterhouse is the choice for those who can't decide - one side is a strip and the other side is a filet, with a bone in between.

But we don't order meat by the amount of fat. "I'd like steak with a medium-to-large amount of marbling, please," isn't something often heard in a restaurant.

Rather, we order steaks by the cut of beef, using the nomenclature we are most familiar with.

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When I was growing up, there was no such thing as a "porterhouse" - it was a T-bone. Anatomically, they are the same, though the porterhouse you get at a restaurant is usually larger than the T-bone you get at a supermarket.

A filet was a "filet mignon" or "tenderloin" or - if we were out at a fancy restaurant - they might be called "medallions" or "tournedos."

Rib-eyes were exotically named "cowboy steaks" at my house, and I loved eating those as a kid, if only for the fact it gave me a reason to wear my cowboy boots to dinner. The fragrance and sizzle of the fat dripping from the rib-eye onto the coals below the grill is one of the great continuities of my life, from those evenings years ago on the patio with my father to the present day when cooking for my own family.

In recent years, traveling in France, I learned that the rough-and-tumble "cowboy steak" is translated into the more delicately termed "entrecôte." It still tastes good.

Today, I love nothing more than dinner at a classic steakhouse. The pomp and circumstance of uniformed waiters and crisply suited maître d's combine with the fragrance and sizzle (again) of beef being drawn from impossibly-hot broilers for a uniquely American dining experience.

In Houston, I'm partial to Vic & Anthony's or Pappas Bros. A trip to New York City isn't complete without a visit to arguably the most famous steakhouse in the U.S. - Peter Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn, known for aggressively charred porterhouse steaks the size of serving platters.

When ordering for myself, I inevitably get a "New York strip," also known as a "shell steak" or just "strip steak." The strip comes from the "short loin" primal cut of beef. I never thought about why it was called a "New York strip" until recently.

One of the earliest and most famous restaurants in the U.S. was Delmonico's in New York City. (The Delmonico in New Orleans, now owned by Emeril Lagasse, was a branch of the original). The New York restaurant opened in 1827 and became known as an American fine dining restaurant when most restaurants in the U.S. were either dusty roadhouses or fancy French joints attached to big-city hotels.

Delmonico's became famous for steak. Beef quality varied greatly in the 19th century, and they were known for serving only the best. Although it served many different cuts of beef, it became known for the rib-eye and the strip. There still are steakhouses that offer a "Delmonico Steak" which is usually a rib-eye.

However, some argue that their most famous was the strip steak. As restaurants and steakhouses spread across the U.S. and the beef industry standardized the cuts we see today, the steak took on the name of its geographical origin - New York. The "New York strip" is still a standard item on most steakhouse menus.

Occasionally, you will hear about a place that is going to "reinvent the steakhouse." Inevitably, though, the same cuts of beef still are there, along with a few exotic cuts and grades like Wagyu or Kobe thrown in for good measure. Ultimately, a steakhouse is about tradition and familiarity. We may call different steaks by different names, but the comfort factor is always the same.

A native of Beaumont, J.C. Reid graduated from the University of Southern California after studying architecture and spent his early career as an architect in New York City. He returned to Texas in 1995, retiring from architecture but creating his own Internet business in Houston. As his business became self-sustaining, he began traveling Houston and the world to pursue his passion: eating barbecue.

He began blogging about food and barbecue for the Houston Chronicle in 2010 and founded the Houston Barbecue Project in 2011 to document barbecue eateries throughout the area. Just last year, Reid and others founded the Houston Barbecue Festival to showcase mom-and-pop barbecue joints in the city. The 2014 event drew 2,000 guests to sample meats from 20 restaurants.